Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum Portsmouth Privacy Statement CHARLES DICKENS (1812 - 1870) Charles Dickens arguably one of the greatest and certainly the most enduring English novelist and writer, was born in Portsmouth on 7th February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, now known as 393 Old Commercial Road, Portsmouth. Charles Dickens parents John and Elisabeth Dickens, were married at St. Mary le Strand, London, on June 13th 1809. His father John Dickens was employed as an 'extra clerk' in the Admiralty pay office based at nearby Portsmouth Dockyard , but was regularly in debt, causing the family to occasionally move house as a consequence. In addition to 393 Old Commercial Road, the Dickens birthplace museum, they also lived at 16 Hawke Street, Portsmouth in June 1812 before returning to London in 1814.

John Dickens financial problems eventually caught up with him and the entire family, apart from Charles, were sent to Marshalsea Prison the debtors prison at Southwark, London, this is said to have inspired Dickens to write the character of Mr Micawber in 'David Copperfield'. Although he avoided going to prison with the rest of his family Charles was sent to work, at age 12, at Warren's Boot Blacking factory located at 30 Hungerford Stairs, the Strand. Here he experienced appalling working conditions labelling shoe-black bottles, earning money to support his imprisoned family. These experiences were later used and fictionalised in 'David Copperfield' and 'Great Expectations'. Debtors often died in prison due to the poor conditions and as they were not able to work they could rarely repay their debts and escape, the Dickens family however were spared the misery of prison when one of John Dickens relatives died, leaving enough money for the family to resolve their debts and be freed.

Charles was eventually able to return to school at Wellington House Academy, although strangely his mother wanted him to continue at the Warrens factory, subsequently working at Gray's Inn as a clerk, as a Parliamentary reporter and eventually as a Journalist at The Morning Chronicle in 1834. Dickens work was first published in Monthly Magazine in December 1833, he used the pen name of Boz, these articles were later published as a compilation called Sketches by Boz. The following are the major works published by Charles Dickens.

Sketches by Boz 1836, Pickwick Papers 1837, Oliver Twist 1838, Nicholas Nickleby 1840, Old Curiosity Shop 1841, Barnaby Rudge 1842, American Notes 1843 Martin Chuzzlewit 1843, A Christmas Carol 1844, The Chimes 1845, The Cricket on the Hearth 1846, Dombey and Son 1849, David Copperfield 1852, Bleak House 1854, Hard Times 1855, Little Dorrit 1859, A Tale of Two Cities 1861, Great Expectations 1864 and Our Mutual Friend 1870. Charles Dickens draws on his memories of Portsmouth in Nicholas Nickleby, Nicholas and Smike tramped to Portsmouth and Mr. Crummles lived in St. Thomas's Street and there they lived 'off mutton and onion sauce'.

Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth his editor and although they had 10 children together, their marriage was troubled and they separated in 1858. He spent the last 13 years of his life with his mistress the Actress Ellen Ternan, she died in 1914 whilst living with her sister Fanny in Victoria Grove, Southsea, she is buried at Highland Road Cemetery, Southsea. Also buried in Highland Road Cemetery is Maria Beadnell, Charles Dickens first love, he was rejected by her family as being unsuitable, Dickens later used her as the character Dora in David Copperfield. The house at Old Commercial Road came up for sale in 1903 and Portsmouth Corporation bought it, opening it to the public on the 22nd July 1904, as a museum dedicated to the great author. The furniture and household objects at the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum, have been used to recreate the house as it would have been when the Dickens family lived there, unfortunately these objects are not their actual possessions.

There are three furnished rooms in the house, the bedroom where Charles was born, the parlour and the dining room, The most important item at the museum is the couch on which Dickens died at Gad's Hill Place on 9 June 1870. This couch was presented to the museum in 1909 by Georgina Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law. Other personal items belonging to Dickens at the museum include his snuff box, inkwell and paper knife. CHARLES DICKENS BIRTHPLACE MUSEUM The Museum is open on Charles Dickens birthday, 7th February and from mid May-Sept 10am-5.30pm. Address: 393 Old Commercial Road, Portsmouth, PO1 4QL Telephone: 02392 827261 THE DICKENS COLLECTION PORTSMOUTH The Central Library in Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, houses a collection of approximately 1,500 Dickens items These range from some first editions of his novels, copies of his main periodicals "Household Words" and "All the Year Round" in addition to plays, poems and letters.

The collection is situated on the second floor of the Library and contains 1,500 books and 100 reels of microfilm. An appointment is required to visit the collection, for further information, please contact Historical Collections staff. Address: Historical Collections Librarian, Norrish Central Library, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2DX. Telephone: 02392 688046 Charles Dickens - YouTube Charles Dickens Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Feb 6, 2012 Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on February 7th, 1812 in Landport, Portsmouth, England, the second of eight children, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. His father was a poor manager of the family's finances, and was eventually sent to a debtor's prison.

The family's poverty forced Charles to leave school when he was 12 years old to begin working ten-hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse. He earned six shillings a week pasting labels on blacking. The strenuous -- and often cruel -- work conditions made a deep impression on Dickens, and later influenced his fiction and essays, forming the foundation of his interest in the reform of socio-economic and labour conditions. Fortunately, Charles was able to leave this work behind and find employment as a newspaper reporter. By the mid-1830s he was also starting to write fiction - his first novel, The Pickwick Papers was published in 1836. That work was a popular success, allowing Charles more time to write other works - Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickelby and The Old Curiosity Shop. In December of 1844, A Christmas Carol, was published. It is likely that A Christmas Carol stands as his best-known story, and it has inspired many versions and adaptations. This is a simple morality tale of the redemption of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and for many the true meaning of Christmas.

A prominent phrase from the tale, 'Merry Christmas', was popularised following the appearance of the story.The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with 'Bah! Humbug!' dismissive of the festive spirit. More importantly, Dickens developed a new secular vision of Christmas, which focused on the importance of family, generosity and the joy and happiness of the season. Dickens continued to write more successful novels, including David Copperfield, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities - the latter of which was published in 1859, and has sold over 200 million copies. Dickens's novels were not just great literature, but also works of social commentary. At a time when Britain was the major economic and political power of the world, Dickens highlighted the life of the forgotten poor and disadvantaged within society. Through his journalism he campaigned on specific issues—such as sanitation and the workhouse—but his fiction probably demonstrated its greatest prowess in changing public opinion. He often depicted the exploitation and oppression of the poor and condemned the public officials and institutions that not only allowed such abuses to exist, but flourished as a result. Many of his readers will know also remember Charles Dickens for the characters he created.

The hundreds of people who filled his novels had believable personalities and vivid physical descriptions. They are among the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Fagin, Miss Havisham, David Copperfield, Mr. Micawber, Samuel Pickwick, Wackford Squeers, Uriah Heep and many others are so well known that they continue to this day to be household names. In his later years Charles traveled throughout Europe and the United States, and often gave readings of his works.

Charles Dickens continued to write and work until the day of his death In 1870 he was buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, and a printed epitaph circulated at the time of his funeral said, "He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world." To learn more about Charles Dickens, visit our website at Category Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum Visit the first home of Charles Dickens Temporary exhibition of Artists' Books Artists’ books inspired by Dickens Weddings at Dickens' Birthplace A magnificent historic setting for your wedding Welcome to Charles Dickens’ Birthplace Museum Charles Dickens – Portsmouth’s most famous son Portsmouth, the Home of Great Writing, has touched the lives and works of Britain’s most famous writers - from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Michelle Magorian, from H.G. Wells to Neil Gaiman. But the city’s most famous son is Charles Dickens – novelist, journalist, and social commentator. Although homes in London and Chatham would later claim him, Dickens’ early life was spent in Portsmouth.

Charles Dickens was born at 1 Mile End Terrace (now re-named 393 Old Commercial Road) on 7th February 1812 - the first married home of his parents, John and Elizabeth Dickens. Here you can experience the authentic atmosphere of the comfortable Regency home which would have greeted the new-born Dickens. Much of Victorian Portsmouth still remains in the city’s streets and heritage, drawn upon by Dickens himself in Nicholas Nickleby. The Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum is the perfect place to start exploring and experiencing the work of one of England’s most famous and best-loved writers. About the displays The displays bring the birthplace to life, perfectly presenting the furnishings and style of the Dickens family. A fully-furnished parlour, dining room and bedroom feature genuine Regency furniture and household items, allowing you to step into the world of the 19th century Dickens family. See exhibits belonging to the man himself, including personal possessions such as his snuff box and even the very couch on which he died. Charles Dickens Guided Walks Discover the area where the Dickens family lived and worked! These walks are led by Portsmouth Tourist Guides and take place on various dates over the year.

They all start at the Victory Gate (the entrance to the Historic Dockyard) and finish at the Portsmouth Museum, Museum Road. This also provides an opportunity for you to see the "A Study in Sherlock" exhibition at the Portsmouth Museum, which showcases the largest collection pertaining to Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes in the world, making Portsmouth the home of great writing. Come and hear readings of Charles Dickens' work On the first Sunday of each month (April to September), come and hear readings from a selection of Charles Dickens' works, by members of the Dickens Fellowship. The readings are 'in the style of Dickens', and take place at 3.00pm, lasting around 45 minutes. Included in the usual admission price, no booking required. Please contact Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum on the day to confirm that the readings will be taking place. For details of other events and special opening days at Charles Dickens Birthplace, see our Visitor Information page, or head to the Visit Portsmouth website. Find us on Facebook... Follow us on Facebook for more from the world of Dickens and what's happening at Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum.

Background | Dickens & the Victorian City Dickens & the Victorian City A Tale of two Cities Background Dickens’s birthplace in Mile End Terrace, Portsmouth. When we think of Dickens and the Victorian City, we think of Dickens and London. While it is impossible to underestimate the importance of London in Dickens’s work, readers, critics, and enthusiasts inevitably ignore the indirect influence of those other English villages, towns and cities in which Dickens lived, worked, and played, including Portsmouth, the city in which he was born.

The significance of Portsmouth in Dickens’s work is often overlooked and little is made of the impact of the city on his work or on related links between Portsmouth and Dickens’s family, and his theatrical, novelistic, and philanthropic interests: Dickens’s father, John Dickens (1785-1851) was a clerk in the pay office of the Royal Navy attached to the Portsmouth dockyard; Dickens’s son, Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens (1847-72) enrolled in Eastman’s Naval Academy in Southsea in 1859, later joining the Royal Navy in 1860 which he made his career; and the Royal Navy features in a number of Dickens’s works, most notably in Dombey and Son (1846-48). Dickens was baptised on 4th March in St Marys Church in 1812 by his parents, John and Elizabeth. In addition, Dickens visited Portsmouth on a number of occasions, mentioned it in numerous works and, in 1859, wrote an essay on the city in All the Year Round.

Furthermore, by some odd quirk of fate, Portsmouth’s more genteel neighbour, Southsea, became the final resting place of two of the women to whom Dickens was romantically attached in his lifetime: Maria Beadnell and the actress, Ellen Ternan . Ellen Ternan, reputedly Dickens’s mistress, is buried in Highland Road Cemetery in Portsmouth. Dickens’s stay in Portsmouth was brief: on the 7 February 1812 Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport, Portsmouth to John Dickens and his wife Elizabeth (1789-1863). The house in which he was born, 13 Mile End Terrace (now Old Commercial Road) has been preserved for posterity and is now known as the Dickens Birthplace Museum. On the 4 March 1812, he was baptised at St Mary’s Church, Portsea, and while the building itself was demolished in the 1850s, and replaced by a new church built in the 1880s, the font in which he was christened remains intact and can be found at St Stephen’s, Portsmouth.

In June 1812, it is thought that the Dickens family moved to lodgings at 16 Hawke Street, Portsmouth, and in December 1813 to 39 Wish Street (now King’s Road) Southsea. Neither building remains: the lodgings in Hawke Street were destroyed during the Second World War and the house in King’s Road has been demolished. The Dickenses remained in Portsmouth until early 1815, when they moved to lodgings in London. Blossom Alley near Dickens’s second home in Hawke Street, Portsea. In total, Dickens’s childhood time in Portsmouth amounts to three years. However, he did return on a number of occasions, and set several chapters of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, serialised 1838-39, in the town of his birth and visited Portsmouth while writing Nickleby. He has often told me that he remembered the small front garden to the house at Portsea, from which he was taken away when he was two years old, and where, watched by a nurse through a low kitchen-window almost level with the gravel-walk, he trotted about with something to eat, and his little elder sister with him.

He was carried from the garden one day to see the soldiers exercise; I perfectly recollect that, on our being at Portsmouth together while he was writing Nickleby, he recognised the exact shape of the military parade seen by him as a very infant, on the same spot, a quarter of a century before. John Forster, Life of Charles Dickens (1871-74) Sailors carousing by George Cruikshank shows inside a Portsea tavern around the time Dickens was born. What this tells us is that, while his time in Portsmouth was short, it made a significant impression on the young Dickens, and that he returned to the town presumably in September 1838, the year before Nicholas Nickleby began to be serialised, on his way to a brief stay on the Isle of Wight. Although there is no specific mention of the city in relation to another visit to the Isle of Wight in July 1849, during which he spends three months in Bonchurch, it is nevertheless likely that he boarded the Ferry at Portsmouth. However, further visits to Portsmouth have been recorded.

In November 1858, he gave two readings in Portsmouth, and a further two readings in May 1866. In Charles Dickens as I Knew Himpublished in 1885, George Dolby, who accompanied Dickens to Portsmouth during the 1866 reading tour, reported Dickens’s attempt to find his childhood home: On the morning after our arrival we set out for a walk, and turning a corner of the street suddenly, found ourselves in Landport Terrace. The name of the street catching Mr. Dickens’s eye, he suddenly exclaimed: ‘By Jove! here is the place where I was born;’ and, acting on his suggestion, we walked up and down the terrace for some time, speculating as to which of the houses had the right to call itself his cradle. Beyond a recollection that there was a small front garden to the house he had no idea of the place—for he was only two years old when his father was removed from London to Portsmouth. As the houses were nearly all alike, and each had a small front garden, we were not much helped in our quest by Mr. Dickens’s recollections, and great was the laughter at his humorous conjectures.

He must have lived in one house because ‘it looked so much like his father;’ another one must have been his home because it looked like the birthplace of a man who had deserted it; a third was very like the cradle of a puny, weak youngster such as he had been; and so on, through the row. This anecdote recalls the opening pages of Great Expectations (1860-1) in which the young Pip explains how the shape of the headstones in the local churchyard, resemble, in his imagination, the shapes of his mother, father and siblings: I give Pirrip as my father’s family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister – Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like, were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father’s, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair.

From the character and turn of the inscription, ‘Also Georgiana Wife of the Above,’ I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine – who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle – I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence. While it is London and the Kent marshes that immediately come to mind when one thinks of Great Expectations, references to Portsmouth appear in three of its chapters: when Jaggers returns to England, he lands at Portsmouth, and a letter received by Jaggers, asking for Pip’s whereabouts, is postmarked ‘Portsmouth’.

Perhaps this is unsurprising, given that in September 1960, shortly after accompanying his son Sydney to Portsmouth where the latter was due to join his training ship, Dickens began work on Great Expectations Portsmouth makes further ‘guest appearances’ in A Child’s History of England (1851-3), The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices and The Perils of Certain English Prisoners (both of which were written with the author Wilkie Collins and published in 1857), and The Uncommercial Traveller (1860-9) as well as being the location of the theatre in which the Crummles Theatre Company performs in Nicholas Nickleby. However, the city of Portsmouth receives a rather more extensive treatment in a six-page article that appeared in the first volume of All the Year Round(24 September 1859). Entitled simply ‘Portsmouth’, the essay opens with the words: ‘If our topography were not the most capriciously written of any branch of our literature … what a book we should have about Portsmouth!’ Dickens then proceeds to write about the history of Portsmouth and the surrounding area, before he comments on the city in ‘modern times’, that is, Victorian Portsmouth.

While he suggests that Portsmouth has now become ‘at once a greater naval station and arsenal and a less interesting town’, he also notes that it is a growing and developing city in which the ‘expanding power is in the great eastern suburbs of Southsea, where has arisen a town and population of its own, with crescents, squares, and terraces of the latest sea-side fashion, and new fortifications to match’. However, he saves his talents for a dazzling description of Portsmouth harbour, capturing the excitement of the naval city for his readers: Portsmouth was, and still is, home to the Royal Navy. The picture above shows looking across to The Dockyard from The Hard. Dickens’s father was a clerk in the Navy pay office. We mount a balcony standing out into the sea-breeze … and from which you can have a capital bird’s-eye view. … Well, there, on your left, is fair ‘Veeta,’ the Isle of Wight, green and round, and with the white town of Ryde glittering in the sunlight at its fringe. There spreads the Channel squadron before you. H.M.S. James Watt, H.M.S. Hero, H.M.S. Algiers, H.M.S.

Royal Albert (three-decker), H.M.S. Agamemnon, are the liners. … What a brilliant spectacle Spithead makes with all these vessels lying there, the sunlight glittering on their chequered sides, the wind making their colours fly, and in and out, round and round the floating castles, the white-canvassed yachts, the sea-butterflies among the sea-eagles! Any visitor to Portsmouth today, lucky enough to arrive on a hot summer’s day will recognise the harbour from Dickens’s description, albeit that the naval warships have been replaced by the white and blue of ferries crossing to France and the Isle of Wight: the white-canvassed yachts still weave in and out of the larger ships, the sea still sparkles, the Island remains as green and alluring, and the town of Ryde still glitters in the sunshine. As Dickens’s article demonstrates, his feelings towards his birthplace were ambivalent, by turns critical and affectionate. Nevertheless, as this introduction shows, Portsmouth plays a greater part in his works than is commonly acknowledged.

This website, along with the accompanying book , aims to highlight those points at which Portsmouth becomes visible, and to consider Victorian Portsmouth as a microcosmic version of London, sharing with the metropolis, many of the philanthropic and political concerns that animated Dickens during his lifetime. Dickens, Charles, was born at Landport, Portsmouth, February... Note: Do not rely on this information. It is very old. Dickens Dickens, Charles, was born at Landport, Portsmouth, February 7th, 1812. He was a son of John Dickens, then stationed in Portsmouth Dockyard as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. In 1814 the elder Dickens was recalled to London, and two years later he went to Chatham, where the future novelist attended a school in Gibraltar Place. As a child he read deeply, and is even said to have attempted original writing. Owing to reforms in the Admiralty, John Dickens lost his post and most of his income in 1821. Hemoved with his family to London; and in the suburb of Camden Town Charles Dickens experienced that pinch of poverty to which frequent reference is made in his works.

The father was soon arrested for debt, and Charles was placed in ablacking manufactory in Hungerford Market, where he was employed in putting labels on the blacking bottles. The degradation of his surroundings made a deep and lasting impression upon his mind. When the father recovered his liberty, the boy was sent to a private school in the Hampstead Road. On leaving school he entered a solicitor's office, where he taught himself shorthand, and in his seventeenth year he became a reporter at Doctors' Commons. At this time he ardently longed to go upon the stage, but fortunately for the future of literature his desires remained unfulfilled. In 1831 he joined the reporting staff of the True Sun, and in 1834 he became a reporter for the Morning Chroniele. Dickens began his real career, however, in December, 1833, when he published in the Old Monthly Mayazine his first original article, entitled "A Dinner at Poplar Walk." Other papers succeeded, and he made ? profitable engagement with the conductors of the Morning Chronicle to supply a series of papers for the evening issue of that journal.

These papers were reprinted in 183C under the title of Sketches by Boz. A comic opera, The Village Coquettes, appeared the same year. The success of the Sketches by Boz led Dickens to undertake in 1837 the production of a serial, in monthly parts, entitled The Posthumous Papersofthe Pickwick Club. The monthly numbers of this immortal work attained almost at once a phenomenal popularity, and that popularity has never since declined. Oliver Twist (which first appeared in Bentley's Miscellany, oi' which Dickens was for a time editor) was published in 1838. This powerful story lifted the veil upon life in the provincial workhouses and in the London slums. It was succeeded by Nicholas Nicltleby (1839), one of the best as well as one of the most widely appreciated of the novelist's works. In 1840 Dickens undertook a serial collection of stories, called Master Humphrey's Clock.

The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), which contains for its central figure that exquisite and pathetic creation, "Little Nell"; and Barnaby Budye (1841), a tale associated with the Lord George Gordon Riots, appeared in this series, together with a number of shorter stories and sketches In 1842 Dickens visited the United States, and on his return published his American Notes for General Circulation, a work which gave great offence in the States for its too caustic pictures of Transatlantic society. Martin Chuzzleivit, which appeared in 1843, also contained unflattering representations of American character. Though regarded as one of the most masterly of the author's works, it was received with less favour than its predecessors. It has since advanced largely in the public estimation, however, and several of its characters, including Mrs. Gamp and Mr. Pecksniff, are as famous as any the novelist has drawn.

The "Christmas Books" - which included The Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, The Haunted Man, and The Gliost's Bargain - were issued at intervals from 1843 to 1848. In 1845-46 Dickens visited Italy, and the result of his travels appeared in a series of sketches, Pictures from Italy, which were published in the Daily News. Dickens was the editor of this new journal, but finding the work uncongenial, he relinquished it, and returned to his creative work in literature. What may be termed his second period in fiction began with the publication of Dombey and Son, in monthly numbers, in 1846-48. Then came David Copperfield (1849-50), which is usually regarded as one of the finest of his works. In great part it was a record of the novelist's own experiences, so that its humorous and pathetic revelations possess an autobiographic interest.

Dickens established in 1850 a cheap weekly periodical, called Household Words, but this was superseded in 1859 by All the Year Bound, which he conducted until his death. Bleak House, a novel depicting the abuses of the Court of Chancery, was published in 1852-53; and The Child's History of Enyland and Hard Times, a tale dealing with questions affecting the working man, in 1854. Little Dorrit, which depicts the self-sacrificing devotion of a daughter for a worthless parent, appeared in 1855-57; and during its progress Dickens removed from London to Gad's Hill Place, near Rochester, where he ever afterwards resided. A Tale of Two Cities, which graphically describes the horrors of the French Revolution, was published in 1859. At this time, Dickens undertook his first series of public readings. Though extremely popular and profitable, the readings undoubtedly sapped his physical strength; and his intellectual productiveness from this period was not so great as in previous years.

Great Expectations appeared in 1860-61; The Uncommercial Traveller in 1861; Our Mutual Friend, the last of his lengthy completed works, in 1864-5; while Christmas stories, mainly from his pen, appeared at the close of every year in All the Year Bound. The novelist paid a second visit to the United States in 1867-8, and was received everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm. The success of his public readings was equal to that which he achieved in his native land. After his return to England he began the composition of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which was destined to be the last of his works. The first numbers of the new serial were published in 1870, but the story remained unfinished at his death. In March, 1870, Dickens gave his last reading in St. James's Hall, the scene being a very memorable one. Medical advisers frequently warned the novelist that he was overtaxing his strength and energies, but his nature never permitted him to rest, and he literally died in harness.

On the 8th of June he was seized with a fit at his residence, Gad's Hill Place, and never recovered from the attack. He expired on the following morning, June 9th, 1870, in his fifiy-ninth year. On the 14th of June he was interred in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey. The news of his death was received with profound and universal regret throughout the English-speaking world. Dickens married in 1838 a daughter of George Hogarth, the well-known musical critic and writer. For the encouragement of young authors the novelist was especially distinguished, and he was associated with Bulwer Lytton and others in founding the Guild of Literature and Art. He also took an active part in the administration of the Royal Literary Fund. Dickens was one of the greatest and most original of English novelists. Notwithstanding the tendency to caricature in his writings, the characters in his vast portrait gallery are, in the main, true to life. They are distinct types, creations as graphic as they are human.

In the pages of this prince of storytellers comedy and tragedy jostle each other as they do in human existence, and he has equal command over the springs of laughter and of tears. Were there no other preservative qualities in his works, their intensity of feeling alone would ensure them the continuous appreciation of posterity. Dickens Fellowship Portsmouth Portsmouth – the Birth Town of Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was born on 7th February, 1812. His father, John Dickens, had come to Portsmouth at the end of 1807, at the age of 19, sent from the Naval Pay Office in London to take charge of the Pay office in the busiest port in the world. He rented a newly built middleclass terraced house, 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport, (now become 393 Old Commercial Road in the Charles Dickens Precinct) on 1st April 1809, and brought his new bride (Elizabeth née Barrow) there after their marriage in London.

Dickens’s sister France Elizabeth (Fanny) was born there on 28th October 1810, 15 moths before Charles, and the family lived there until they moved to a cheaper house, 16 Hawke Street, Portsea, much nearer the Pay Office. The Birthplace Museum Dickens Birthplace – 393 Old Commercial Road (formerly 1 Mile End Terrace) open annually 1 April to 30 September. Here was born, on 7th February 1812, Charles John Huffam Dickens. Also born there was Frances Elizabeth Dickens, born 28th October 1810. In the house, beside the contemporary furnishing, there is the couch on which he died at Gad’s Hill, near Rochester. Portsmouth Corporation bought 1 Mile End Terrace when it came up for sale in 1903, and opened it on 22nd July 1904 as the “Birthplace Museum” with a large collection of “Dickens” books, many provided by its first curator, Arthur Seale.

In 1967, the Birthplace was furnished and refurbished as it would have been in 1812, and the book collection was transferred to Portsmouth Central Library Local History Section as “The Dickens Special Collection.” Besides the normal furniture, the Museum holds the couch on which Charles Dickens died on 9th June 1870 at Gad’s Hill near Rochester. Special Collection of Dickens-related books, journals, biographies, letters, etc. in the Portsmouth Central Library To ensure access to the “Special Collection”, contact the Central Library – see Portsmouth City Council Website . The Bicentenary Annual Dickens Conference 9th to 14th August, 2012 in Portsmouth. Calendar Real Name: Charles John Huffam Dickens D.O.B: 7 February 1812 Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Death: 9 June 1870 (aged 58) Gad's Hill Place, - ppt download Download Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Real Name: Charles John Huffam Dickens D.O.B: 7 February 1812 Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Death: 9 June 1870 (aged 58) Gad's Hill Place, Published by Dwight Carson Modified 11 months ago Embed Similar presentations More Presentation on theme: "Real Name: Charles John Huffam Dickens D.O.B: 7 February 1812 Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Death: 9 June 1870 (aged 58) Gad's Hill Place,"— Presentation transcript: 1 2 Real Name: Charles John Huffam Dickens D.O.B: 7 February 1812 Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England Death: 9 June 1870 (aged 58) Gad's Hill Place, Higham, Kent, England 3 Charles Dickens was the 2 nd of 8 children to John Dickens (1785– 1851) and Elizabeth Dickens (1789– 1863.) After his birth his family moved to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury.

yhistory/famouspeople/charles_dicken s/ 4 5 6 7 In late November, 1851, Dickens moved into Tavistock House, where he wrote Bleak House (1852–53), Hard Times (1854) and Little Dorrit (1856). During this period he worked closely with a novelist and a playwright, Wilkie Collins. In 1857, Dickens hired a professional actresses for the play, The Frozen Deep, which he and his protégé, Wilkie Collins had written. 8 9 9 th June 1865: While returning from Paris with Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in a rail crash. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast ironbridge that was under repair. The only first class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling in. 10 8 th June 1870: Dickens suffered another stroke at his home after a full day's work at Edwin Drood. He never regained consciousness, and the next day, 9 th June, he died at Gad's Hill Place.

Last Words: “On the ground” in response to his sister-in-law Georgina's request that he must lie down. 11 He worked in a shoe polish factory and was a freelance reporter. But his favourite one is his paying job, (an author.) 12 Britain in 1800 had changed little in centuries. It was a rural country. For most of the people, the world was restricted to their village - where their family had probably lived for generations. But all that was about to change though the steam engine was first invented in 1769 by James Watt. BBC - Primary History - Famous People - Charles Dickens Why is Charles Dickens famous? Who was Charles Dickens? Charles Dickens is a famous English writer. People all over the world enjoy his stories. One of them is Oliver Twist, the story of a poor boy in Victorian times. Books by Dickens can be funny and sad. His stories are full of interesting 'characters' (people). When did Dickens live? Dickens was born in England in 1812. He died in 1870. His first big success was The Pickwick Papers. This was in 1837, the year Victoria became Britain's Queen.

Dickens lived through the Industrial Revolution . He wrote about how life was changing, especially for poor people. Why do people read Dickens? Many of Dickens' stories came out in weekly or monthly parts, as serials. Each month people could read a new chapter in the story. Perhaps this is why Dickens' books make good films and TV serials too. Readers like a good story, with interesting characters. Dickens was very clever at making up characters. People all over the world know Oliver Twist, Scrooge and David Copperfield, even if they have not read the books in which these characters appear. Early life Where was Dickens born? On 7 February 1812, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth. His parents named him Charles John Huffam Dickens. Portsmouth was the home of the Royal Navy . His father, John Dickens, worked as a clerk for the Navy. His mother's name was Elizabeth Barrow. She wanted to be a teacher and run a school. Happy times The Dickens family never had much money. Charles had seven brothers and sisters. Mr Dickens dreamed of being rich. Mrs Dickens dreamed of owning a school. Somehow things never went right.

In 1816 the family moved to Chatham, in Kent. Charles was happy there. He went to school. He explored the countryside. He loved the old castle at Rochester. Hard times In 1822 the family moved to London. Now times were hard. Mr Dickens was sent to prison for six months for not paying his bills. Charles (aged 12) had to work in a dirty old factory , beside the River Thames. He could hear rats squeaking and running about. His job was to put labels on pots of 'blacking', used to clean fireplaces. Dickens never forgot this unhappy time. He wrote about it later. Growing up By 1824 Mr Dickens had enough money to send Charles back to school. At 15, Charles got a job in a lawyer's office. He hated it. In his books he makes most lawyers horrid! Charles learned shorthand . He got a job writing about Parliament . He travelled around England by stagecoach , writing for newspapers. He wrote stories about the people he met. Dickens the writer Dickens is a success In 1833, he sold his first story. At first Dickens called himself 'Boz'. This was his pen-name .

In 1836, he married Catherine Hogarth. Suddenly he became famous. His funny stories called The Pickwick Papers were a success. Oliver Twist Oliver Twist came out in 1837. It was a grim tale about an orphan boy (Oliver), who is sent to the workhouse . Oliver ends up in the London underworld, in a gang of thieves led by Fagin. The story ends happily for Oliver, but people were shocked. Were poor children really treated so badly? Life for poor children Life for poor children in Victorian times was very hard. Small children worked in coal mines and factories . Little boys were made to climb inside chimneys and clean them. Oliver Twist almost becomes a 'chimney-boy'. Instead he is made to work for an undertaker . Life in London London was a big, crowded city. Many poor people lived in slums . Homeless children slept on the streets. Many people died from diseases. Almost half the funerals in London in the 1830s were of children under 10. London did not have a police force until 1829. Even young children were sent to prison.

Dickens the celebrity A famous man Dickens became so famous people knew him as he walked about London. He was a celebrity. Dickens walked for miles around the city, watching and listening. He made notes for new stories. Dickens keeps busy In 1846 Dickens became editor of the Daily News, a newspaper. He did not like being told what to do by the owners, so in 1850 he started his own magazine, Household Words. Now he could write what he liked. Dickens was a show-off. He loved to give public readings from his books. In 1842, he visited America. Two famous books Of his many books, Dickens liked David Copperfield best. In it he wrote about Mr Micawber, who seems very like Dickens' father. In 1843, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. It is one of his most famous stories. In it, we meet the miser Scrooge - and three ghosts! Why did people like long books? In Victorian times, there was no radio, no television, no internet, no cinema. People read lots of books. Readers liked long stories, to pass the time. Grown-ups read novels and magazines.

Children had their own books too. Dickens was the most famous novelist in Britain. There were lots of others, such as Sir Walter Scott and Charlotte Brontë. Family life Dickens and his wife had 10 children. But their marriage was not happy. In 1858, they split up. Dickens loved acting. He had his own little theatre at home. While acting in a play in 1857, Dickens fell in love with Ellen Ternan, an actress. How was Britain changing? Dickens saw many changes during his life, made by the Industrial Revolution . In 1820 most people in England worked on farms. When Dickens died in 1870, most people worked in towns. Many poor people worked in factories and lived in slums . What made Dickens angry? Dickens was angered by the sad things he saw. In his books, he tried to show what was wrong. In Nicholas Nickleby, he wrote about a terrible school, Dotheboys Hall, where unwanted children were cruelly treated. He wanted to make life better for people. He wanted new libraries, hospitals and schools. Pictures in Dickens Many of Dickens's books had pictures. The pictures helped readers follow the story.

Two artists were famous for their Dickens drawings. They were George Cruikshank and Hablot K Browne, known as 'Phiz'. How did Dickens die? In 1864 Dickens and Ellen Ternan were in a train crash. Dickens was not badly hurt, but he was never very well after this accident. In 1868 he went on a tour of the United States. He read to large audiences, on stage. It was very tiring. He came home worn out and sick. Dickens died in June 1870, at home in Kent. He was working on a new book. It was The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Charles Dickens was buried in Westminster Abbey. Charles Dickens - Author - Biography.com Charles Dickens Charles Dickens was the well-loved and prolific British author of numerous works that are now considered classics. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “The English are, as far as I know, the hardest worked people on whom the sun shines.

Be content if in their wretched intervals of leisure they read for amusement and do no worse.” “I write because I can't help it.” “Literature cannot be too faithful to the people, cannot too ardently advocate the cause of their advancement, happiness and prosperity.” “An author feels as if he were dismissing some portion of himself into the shadowy world, when a crowd of the creatures of his brain are going from him forever.” “Nobody has done more harm in this single generation than everybody can mend in 10 generations.” “If I were soured [on writing], I should still try to sweeten the lives and fancies of others; but I am not—not at all.” “Well, the work is hard, the climate is hard, the life is hard: but so far the gain is enormous.” “Who that has ever reflected on the enormous and vast amount of leave-taking there is in life can ever have doubted the existence of another?” “I never knew what it was to feel disgust and contempt, till I traveled in America.” “My great ambition is to live in the hearts and homes of home-loving people, and to be connected with the truth of the truthful English life.” Charles Dickens Charles Dickens - One Last Chance (

TV-PG; 2:06) Novelist Charles Dickens set out on public speaking tours of his most beloved work to both the United States and Great Britain in need of money but cost him his health.

Synopsis British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his writing career, he wrote the beloved classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. Early Life Famed British author Charles Dickens was born Charles John Huffam Dickens on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England. He was the second of eight children. His father, John Dickens, was a naval clerk who dreamed of striking it rich. Charles Dickens’ mother, Elizabeth Barrow, aspired to be a teacher and school director. Despite his parents’ best efforts, the family remained poor. Nevertheless, they were happy in the early days. In 1816, they moved to Chatham, Kent, where young Charles and his siblings were free to roam the countryside and explore the old castle at Rochester. In 1822, the Dickens family moved to Camden Town, a poor neighborhood in London.

By then the family’s financial situation had grown dire, as John Dickens had a dangerous habit of living beyond the family’s means. Eventually, John was sent to prison for debt in 1824, when Charles was just 12 years old. Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory alongside the River Thames. At the rundown, rodent-ridden factory, Dickens earned six shillings a week labeling pots of “blacking,” a substance used to clean fireplaces. It was the best he could do to help support his family. Looking back on the experience, Dickens saw it as the moment he said goodbye to his youthful innocence, stating that he wondered “how [he] could be so easily cast away at such a young age.” He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments would later become a recurring theme in his writing. Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. But when Dickens was 15, his education was pulled out from under him once again.

In 1827, he had to drop out of school and work as an office boy to contribute to his family’s income. As it turned out, the job became an early launching point for his writing career. Within a year of being hired, Dickens began freelance reporting at the law courts of London. Just a few years later, he was reporting for two major London newspapers. In 1833, he began submitting sketches to various magazines and newspapers under the pseudonym “Boz.” In 1836, his clippings were published in his first book, Sketches by Boz. Dickens’ first success caught the eye of Catherine Hogarth, whom he soon married. Catherine would grace Charles with a brood of 10 children before the couple separated in 1858. Early Writing In the same year that Sketches by Boz was released, Dickens started publishing The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. His series of sketches, originally written as captions for artist Robert Seymour’s humorous sports-themed illustrations, took the form of monthly serial installments. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was wildly popular with readers.

In fact, Dickens’ sketches were even more popular than the illustrations they were meant to accompany. Around this time, Dickens had also become publisher of a magazine called Bentley’s Miscellany. In it he started publishing his first novel, Oliver Twist, which follows the life of an orphan living in the streets. The story was inspired by how Dickens felt as an impoverished child forced to get by on his wits and earn his own keep. Dickens continued showcasing Oliver Twist in the magazines he later edited, including Household Words and All the Year Round, the latter of which he founded. The novel was extremely well received in both England and America. Dedicated readers of Oliver Twist eagerly anticipated the next monthly installment. Over the next few years, Dickens struggled to match the level of Oliver Twist’s success. From 1838 to 1841, he published The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge. In 1842, Dickens and his wife, Kate, embarked on a five-month lecture tour of the United States. Upon their return, Dickens penned American Notes for General Circulation, a sarcastic travelogue criticizing American culture and materialism.

In 1843, Dickens wrote his novel The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, a story about a man’s struggle to survive on the ruthless American frontier. The book was published the following year. Over the next couple of years, Dickens published two Christmas stories. One was the classic A Christmas Carol, which features the timeless protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser, who, with the help of a ghost, finds the Christmas spirit. READ MORE: Charles Dickens: 5 Facts on the Author & Some Gruesome Truths About His Victorian England Fame During his first U.S. tour, in 1842, Dickens designated himself as what many have deemed the first modern celebrity. He spoke of his opposition to slavery and expressed his support for additional reform. His lectures, which began in Virginia and ended in Missouri, were so widely attended that ticket scalpers started gathering outside his events. Biographer J.B. Priestly wrote that during the tour, Dickens “had the greatest welcome that probably any visitor to America has ever had.” “They flock around me as if I were an idol,” bragged Dickens, a known show-off.

Although he enjoyed the attention at first, he eventually resented the invasion of privacy. He was also annoyed by what he viewed as Americans’ gregariousness and crude habits, as he later expressed in American Notes. In light of his criticism of the American people during his first tour, Dickens launched a second U.S. tour, from 1867 to 1868, hoping to set things right with the public. On his second tour, he made a charismatic speech promising to praise the United States in reprints of American Notes for General Circulation and The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. His 76 readings earned him no less than $95,000, which, in the Victoria era, amounted to approximately $1.5 million in current U.S. dollars. Back at home, Dickens had become so famous that people recognized him all over London as he strolled around the city collecting the observations that would serve as inspiration for his future work. Later years In 1845, after Dickens had toured the United States once, he spent a year in Italy writing Pictures from Italy.

Over the next two years he published, in installments, his next novel, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son. The novel’s main theme is how business tactics affect a family’s personal finances. It takes a dark view of England and was pivotal to Dickens’ body of work in that it set the tone for his other novels. From 1849 to 1850, Dickens worked on David Copperfield, the first work of its kind; no one had ever written a novel that simply followed a character through his everyday life. In writing it, Dickens tapped into his own personal experiences, from his difficult childhood to his work as a journalist. Although David Copperfield is not considered Dickens’ best work, it was his personal favorite. It also helped define the public’s expectations of a Dickensian novel. During the 1850s, Dickens suffered two devastating losses: the deaths of his daughter and father. He also separated from his wife during that decade, with Dickens slandering Kate publicly. He had also met a young actress named Ellen "Nelly" Ternan, with whom he had an intimate relationship.

Sources differ on whether the two started seeing each other before or after Dickens' marital separation; it is also believed that he went to great lengths to erase any documentation alluding to Ternan's presence in his life. His novels also began to express a darkened worldview. In Bleak House, published in installments from 1852 to 1853, he deals with the hypocrisy of British society. It was considered his most complex novel to date. Hard Times (published in 1854) takes place in an industrial town at the peak of economic expansion. In it, Dickens focuses on the shortcomings of employers as well as those who seek change. Also among Dickens’ darker novels is Little Dorrit, a fictional study of how human values come in conflict with the world’s brutality. Coming out of his “dark novel” period, in 1859 Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities, a historical novel that takes place during the French Revolution. He published it in a periodical he founded, All the Year Round. His next novel, Great Expectations (1860-1861), focuses on the protagonist’s lifelong journey of moral development. It is widely considered his greatest literary accomplishment.

A few years later, Dickens produced Our Mutual Friend, a novel that analyzes the psychological impact of wealth on London society. Death In 1865, Dickens was in a train accident and never fully recovered. Despite his fragile condition, he continued to tour until 1870. On June 9, 1870, Dickens had a stroke and, at age 58, died at Gad’s Hill Place, his country home in Kent, England. He was buried in Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey, with thousands of mourners gathering at the beloved author’s gravesite. Scottish satirical writer Thomas Carlyle described Dickens’ passing as “an event worldwide, a unique of talents suddenly extinct.” At the time of Dickens’ death, his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was left unfinished. Videos

Question: Which author was born in 1812 in Landport, which is now part of Portsmouth?
Answer: (Charles) Dickens